Only Place I Call Home
by StartingWithSugar
Summary: Clearly, he had never really left the village, because she was still here. Oneshot Songfic.


**Hey. Just to bide the time while you wait for me to finish TLOTBFY (It's actually quite a stupid title, in retrospect) here's a cute SasuSaku One-shot. Have fun.**

**Even One-shots deserve reviews. _Especially_ one-shots.**

**P.S. - It's written almost entirely in personal pronouns for a reason. Sorry if it gets confusing.  
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><p>She kicked her feet as she walked, listening to the way her heals clicked against the stone.<p>

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><p><em>Leaving you're tears on my shoulder.<em>

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><p>He didn't want to hear whatever she was saying. He was leaving, the decision had been contemplated and decided upon. It's too late for going back.<p>

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><p><em>While your eyes beg me to stay.<em>

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><p>She had done all but tie him to his bed in an attempt to force him to stay. Reason hadn't worked, guilt hadn't worked, nothing would...<p>

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><p><em>We were finally changing,<em>

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><p>Because he was definitely leaving.<p>

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><p><em>It's our luck we're a little to late.<em>

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><p>Even after her confession.<p>

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><p><em>I'd take you with me if there was a way.<em>

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><p>He loved her. He didn't want to, he tried not to. She was obsessive, annoying, and utterly useless in combat. WAS.<p>

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><p><em>Sorry don't cut it, so I'll say...<em>

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><p>And he WAS reclusive and closed-off, and still is. But there were rare moments, when he was actually enjoyable to be around, and easy to have conversations with...<p>

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><p><em>Take all of your doubts, you can throw them out.<em>

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><p>Her timing was off. She loved him, but she was too late in realizing what love REALLY was.<p>

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><p><em>You may be unsure, but I know.<em>

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><p>HIS timing was never off. Nothing about him was off. Falling in love with her, and having to leave-it was a cross he had to bear. Part of his fate, his final plan.<p>

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><p><em>I'm always coming back, you can bet on that.<em>

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><p>He had never planed on being gone forever. He'd get stronger, kill Orochimaru, find his brother, kill his brother. Check, check, check, check.<p>

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><p><em>You're the only place I call home.<em>

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><p>But he started to miss her. He doesn't-shouldn't-COULDN'T-miss people. Love people? He had long since learned to get over those feelings. Miss? That was supposed to be smothered in his hunger for vengeance. How could he reek revenge if he was doing it to himself?<p>

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><p><em>Near or far, where you are is where I want to be.<em>

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><p>She was getting tired of waiting, but there was nothing she could do to get over him. Everytime she walked by that bench, everytime a mission took her by that bridge in the mist village...any structure that had any connection to Team 7, the memories always came flooding back.<p>

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><p><em>Every lonely night,<em>

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><p>And he managed to bury any thoughts of her deep in his subconscious, ignoring them until he propped himself up against the cave wall and his mind had nowhere else to wander. OR his mind had abruptly stopped it's mad dash to the next decision, or the next idea, that it had time to treasure what it didn't <em>really<em> want to forget.

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><p><em>Every drunken fight,<em>

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><p>Aiming the kunai at his back was definitely-hands down-the hardest thing she had ever done. She had quickly felt the cold envelop her skin as her coat opening upward, moving with her arm. Her first thought, when he didn't react, was that she had actually snuck up on him. <em>Him. <em>Or maybe he'd let her get away with it-it was HER after all. She had to still mean SOMETHING to him, right? His turning around and almost killing her derailed that train rather quickly.

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><p><em>Gonna make it right, I know.<em>

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><p>But she was still determined to get him to come home. Her and Naruto. And him. They were Team 7. They had to be a team again. He had to understand that the path he had chosen was not the only one. Had to. Even if it killed them. And that's not a figure of speech, either.<p>

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><p><em>If it hurts to bad, put it on my tab.<em>

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><p>She had gone to Ichiraku, without Naruto (for once), and the girl working behind the counter had stopped scrubbing the bar, then looked up at her.<p>

"You're friends with Uchiha, right?" And she thought everyone in the village knew the story. Well, live and learn, she supposed.

"Something like that," she mumbled.

"Do you know if he ever plans on paying his tab?" She chuckled.

"Maybe. You uh...you can go ahead and put this on there." She grinned at herself and slid off the stool.

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><p><em>I can pay it back tenfold.<em>

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><p>"Uchiha!" The man called him from behind the check-inout counter. And although he had a strong hatred against pushy people, he stopped.

"Hn."

"You know that pink-haired girl you always came here with?" Did he KNOW her? How could he possibly FORGET her?

The man was still waiting for a reply. Mistake on the poor man's part. Eventually, the guy caught on.

"Well. She owes us 15 ryo, and we'd really like those back some day."

He laid the entire contents of his pockets (which, to be fair, was not all the extent of his money. Most of it was is his wallet in the locker room) on the table.

"Um, I only need 15, you already paid your's. So you can keep the extra 34 ryo."

"You keep them." He didn't need the damn hot spring to keep reminding him of her.

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><p><em>You're the only place I've ever called my home.<em>

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><p>She adjusted her eyes to the brightness of the sun as she slid under the ichiraku curatins.<p>

He groaned at the ominously gray sky. He had just taken a bath, for god's sake.

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><p><em>Years pass, and we're growing older.<em>

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><p>It had been four years. 4 years since he had left her. 18 and not having had your first kiss is not something you should be okay with.<p>

But she still had his birthday circled on her calender, and the entire month of October ripped out because she didn't even want to think about it.

He, meanwhile, was still trying to get what he wanted, because he was going to get all the goddamn revenge he wanted. However, he had spent the last year looking for Madara, and the one before that hunting down 'Kabuto'.

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><p><em>And you're not sure you can wait.<em>

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><p>She'd thought about moving on. She'd had lots of offers. Tsunade had mentioned, on more than a few occasions, that she was going to run out of time. She would simply wave the elder woman off.<p>

But she couldn't move on, not from him.

Ino did. Karin (who they had taken as a captive and eventually released, although the redhead had decided living in the leaf village was the safest idea) did. Every other fangirl (to her knowledge) had. Only she was left.

She liked to say she liked it better that way, anyway.

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><p><em>So I promise, it won't always be like this.<em>

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><p>He had plenty of time to aimlessly wander, and in the meantime, think. And all he could ever do was think about her. His only remaining travel companion, Suigetsu, had yet to let 'losing the best tracker' go. He had long since forgotten about Karin; even Naruto had begun to fade from his memory. But her smiling, warm face always came back to him, even if he wished it wouldn't.<p>

He had always told himself that one day, he would go back to get her. Not to the leaf village; he was far to gone to ever reintegrate into that system. And he would never, ever let what the (now dead, thanks to him) elders did go. But SHE wasn't involved in all of that. She just wanted him back. And maybe he wanted her a little too.

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><p><em>You say, "It's always the same."<em>

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><p>This was exactly the 6th long-term mission Naruto and she had been on that would inevitably lead them to an abandoned hideout of his. Sometime they'd find clothes and figure it was recent, or find food still in it and be able to guess how old it really was.<p>

But it was getting exhausting, never finding any REAL evidence to prove where he might be now. Hell, he had probably forgotten about them.

"Naruto," She said softly, as they left the stone cave, "I think we're done."

"W-what?" He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"This-him. It's to late, Naruto. Just let him go."

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><p><em>We're falling apart if you think so...<em>

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><p>Naruto had reluctantly consented after nonstop begging for her to forget about the promise.<p>

So, maybe Naruto didn't consent so much as she secretly told Tsunade to abandon anything revolving around him. Tsunade had nodded silently, and 'Team 7' was kept busy with other missions.

She bought a new calendar and didn't circle his birthday or rip out October. October was just the beginning of fall, no longer 'the month he left', and July 23rd was just another day.

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><p><em>I'm holding on, even if you let go.<em>

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><p>"Suigetsu," he commanded, looking over at his white-haired acquaintance.<p>

"What?" The man snapped back. Poor guy had been through a lot with a not very social 'friend'.

"What's today?" Suigetsu was a little taken aback. He never asked anything.

"March 28th. Why?" Answering was not really his thing. Suigetsu didn't REALLY expect one, anyway.

But he looked up ath the sky, and for once, let his mind wander to her.

"Happy birthday, Sakura."

"What?" Suigetsu asked, glancing over at him. But of course, he didn't answer.

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><p><em>Take all of your doubts,<em>

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><p>She traced her finger along her window, fogging it with her breath and twitching to a stop every time she started writing his name. In a moment of finality, she broke out windex and washed any remaining residue of his and her names in a heart.<p>

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><p><em>You can throw them out.<em>

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><p>"W-where are you going?" There was a silence as he continued to pack up. Suigetsu should seriously stop talking altogether.<p>

But he did leave. He got up and walked out of the ave. And Suigetsu let him, his mind always seemed to wander into a place only he would ever know. Suigetsu laid back down in his sleeping back.

"Maybe now I can get some sleep."

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><p><em>You may be unsure, but I know.<em>

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><p>She sighed as she laid back down in her bed. Really-she was over him. Maybe if she kept saying that in her head it'd end up being true. But when she set her forehead-protector down in her drawer, and the picture of Team 7 (The REAL Team 7) smiled back at her, she folded it up and threw it under her bed. She started shaking and hugged her knees into her chest, then began to cry into them.<p>

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><p><em>I'm always coming back, you can bet on that.<em>

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><p>Sneaking past the guards at the front of the village was easier than it should have been. He briefly remembered how easy it was to leave, and the shock dissipated.<p>

Well, how PHYSICALLY leaving was easy. Clearly, he had never really left the village, because she was still here.

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><p><em>You're the only place I call home.<em>

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><p>She calmed herself down and walked back over to the mirror, running her fingers through her hair. She rushed water over her face and almost as soon as she turned it off, a small white rectangle came into focus. She could see it in the mirror, reflecting the window where the paper had been taped.<p>

Upon finishing reading it, she jumped out the window, because in times like these, who needs doors? She didn't even worry about shoes-just getting to him. It had to be his note. No one else writes 'Ichiraku. No Naruto. Seriously, that dumbass will run up my tab (if he hasn't already) way to much. Hn.' Maybe she was desperate. Maybe not. But right now, as she sprinted across the village barefoot in nothing but an over-sized T-shirt, she wasn't thinking about the disappointment she would most likely feel.

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><p><em>Near or far, where you are is where I want to be.<em>

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><p>And when she saw black sandals and pressed against the stool, and a dirty leather bag propped up against it, she skid to halt. What if it WAS him? What was she supposed to say?<p>

Oh, who cares.

"I-"

He stopped her by pulling her against him and pressing his lips on hers. At first, she resisted, because seriously, she didn't even know if it was him. But she recognized his raven-hair and his rough hands far too quickly for someone who should've been over him.

"You came home," Sakura whispered, resting her forehead against his.

"Not until I saw you," Sasuke replied, pulling her tighter against him.

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><p><em>Someday I'll come back for you, and never leave again.<em>

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><p><strong>Every Avenue - Only Place I Call Home.<strong>

**((A/N: The last lyrics is actually later in the song, I just really wanted to include it.))**


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